20 goodreading ı MAY 2010
BEING ‘SALT WISE’
It is generally agreed that too much
salt is bad for us.Yet salt is essential
for life. Further more, salt improves the
taste of virtually every food we eat, so
long as it is applied in the right amount.
The difference between too much and
too little, both in ter ms of what's good
for our bodies and what's good for our
food, is a very fine line. We may cross it
without even knowing.
But there is a way in which we can
do what's best for our food and our
health, both at the same time.To do
that, we need to be 'salt wise'.
Know Your Salt
We need to be aware of the salt that we
eat. We need to know how salt tastes,
and if we have used too much, or too
little. We need to use the right salt, in
the right amount, for the right dish.
That is being 'salt wise'.
Abandon the Shaker
We need to know how salt feels. When
cooking with salt we need to use our
fingers and hands to add salt in small
increments, tasting as we go, to ensure
that we neither oversalt nor undersalt.
We need to throw out the salt
shaker: when salting food at the
table, we need to use better salt more
sparingly, rather than shaking table salt
with abandon. That is being 'salt wise'.
Be Aware of ‘Hidden’ Salt
We need to know that over three-
quarters of the salt in our diet comes from
processed food rather than food we cook
at home.We need to read food labels,
and make a conscious decision to choose
foods that are lower in sodium.
We need to acknowledge the Heart
Foundation of Australia's recommendations
of a maximum of six grams of salt per
day for adults -- roughly one heaped
teaspoon -- and strive to keep within those
guidelines.That is being 'salt wise'.
‘tis the SEASON
Salt, argue FRITZ GUBLER and DAVID GLYNN, is something we should know more
about in order to eat good food well. In this extract from The Salt Book, we learn about
being ‘salt wise’ and making our own flavoured salts.
cooking the books
6
7
5
9
2
17
10
11
4
3
1
15
13
14
16
12
8
1 Himalayan pink salt, coarse 2 Himalayan pink salt, fine 3 Netherlands smoked salt 4 Fleur de sel de Camargue
5 Hawaiian black salt 6 Kala Namak (Indian black salt) 7 Sicilian sea salt 8 Fleur de sel de Geurande 9 Hawaiian green salt
10 Hawaiian ‘Alaea red salt 11 Murray River pink salt 12 Tetsuya’s truffle salt 13 Olsson’s macrobiotic sea salt 14 Halon Môn
sea salt 15 Maldon sea salt 16 Cyprus black salt 17 Cyprus lemon salt